Thursday, August 28, 2014

***Just putting it out there: the nail stickers were sent to me for review under the condition of a 100% honest review from me. I'm not receiving any money to write this post and, as always, would never lie to you all. None of the links below are affiliate links; I'll never exploit you like that! :)

When the Born Pretty Store contacted me to review more of their nail products (I wrote about a few different sets of their water decals here and here) I decided I would try something a little wacky; something a little out of my comfort zone; something…realistic-bunnies-that-glow-in-the-dark.

Yup, that's right: I picked out this set of nail stickers with huge bunny faces on them that also happen to have the ability to make their presence known in the night while they watch you sleep.

Not going to lie, some of these bunnies scare me—particularly the white ones with red eyes. The day those end up on my nails may be the day all hell freezes over but hey, to each their own. Personally I think the black and white bunnies are quite dapper (especially the pair with bow ties) and were quite charming on the nails, especially with the addition of pastel garden-esque colors and glitter surrounding them. Because floral and glitter make everything less scary, amiright? I'd like to think so anyways.

Considering these are the first nail stickers I've ever used, I was really pleased with how easy they were to apply. The material was fairly plush and almost gel like in texture so they easily bent around the curvature of my nails. I had to trim the stickers to fit my cuticles before applying them (I feel like that's pretty standard though, right?) but other than that you just slap them on over a base coat, file away the excess from the tips of the nails, and then apply a top coat.

For the sake of review (scientific-knowledge-reasons) I decided to not put a top coat over one of the stickers to see how it lasted on its own. To my surprise it actually lasted just as long (I removed the manicure after 5 days purely because I wanted a change, not because of major chips or wear) as the bunnies who received a healthy dose of Seche Vite! So really you can't do wrong with these, I just personally prefer the extra shiny look of my top coat.

You can see that the print of these nail stickers is a bit 'fuzzier' than it appears on the site, but honestly it didn't really make much of a difference to me. The bunnies are clearly recognizable and there's no question that I've got critters on my nails. At first I had no idea how I was going to make huge realistic bunny faces work on my nails but, with the addition of some floral rhinestones (I got the wheel off of ebay ages ago for about a dollar) and the quirky combo of Revlon's "Whimsical" over "Jaded", I think this manicure ended up being super cute. A little out there, yes, but fantastical all the same.

As always, if you're interested in trying out some things from the Born Pretty Store (their selection of nail products really is top-notch if you're into cute decals and the like) then please feel free to use the discount code RIFW10 when you checkout to get 10% off! I love saving you lovely people some money where I can.

Yikes, it's been awhile since I updated my blog about new videos huh? I just feel like I've been pumping them out so frequently lately and, considering it's been the wrap-up of my summer school session, I was just happy they were uploaded to YouTube much less my blog! Regardless, if you're interested and haven't been watching my YouTube channel lately, feel free to catch up with any (or all! Heck, I'd be flattered) of the four videos linked above.

Monday, August 25, 2014

After rummaging through the photos I've taken over the past couple of months for my blog (but obviously never posting) I came across this set for the L'Oreal Voluminous Miss Manga mascara. And, since I just featured this mascara in my most recent empties video, I figured it was about darn time to get to writing a proper blog review for it; if I wait any longer I'm pretty sure I'll forget too much to be able to write about it at all! Anyone else have that problem or is my memory just that horrendous?

Ugh/anywho/moving on.

First off, I need to get this off of my chest (at least to those of you who don't watch my YouTube videos/didn't watch the first impression video I did on this mascara): "manga" is not pronounced "MAYn-guh" like they obnoxiously proclaim in the commercials; it's pronounced "mAHn-gah". You can trust me because I speak a decent amount of Japanese. You can thank me and school all of your friends later.

Secondly, onto the actual product: I'M SO EFFING TORN UP ABOUT IT. I like it, but I don't. I was nice, but not the best. I might buy it again, but I might not. Basically I'm saying that this review will probably do you no favors in terms of figuring out whether or not you want to purchase it for yourself and I'm so sorry. Regardless I figure I should give it a shot!

I feel like my mixed feelings on the Miss Manga mascara come from the wishy-washy performance of the mascara itself. The super flexible/bendy wand was a bit difficult to get used to and, even when you do figure out how to use it efficiently, I didn't feel like it did anything to help (or hurt) the application of the actual mascara. Seemed a little gimmicky in the long run? That initial trickiness also didn't help the fact that the Miss Manga mascara is a bit on the wet side which, for me, means a bit of a mess on the surrounding eyelid/under eye area.

Goodness, it really sounds like I hated this stuff doesn't it? Well I can assure you that there were definitely good aspects to it as well. It provides a lot of volume to the lashes as well as some nice length, though I know a lot of people that don't like the way it can look clumpy. If you knew a little bit about manga though then you'd understand that that's actually the look L'Oreal was going for (I mentioned it in the "Best & Worst" video I featured it in but if you want to see some stereotypical [and gorgeous] manga lashes just type "Nana Komatsu manga" into Google)! The Miss Manga mascara also did a great job at holding the curl of my lashes and, while the formula wasn't the waterproof version, I had no problems with it running even though my eyes are anything but dry.

So there you have it folks… confliction in its most pure form.

There were definite ups and downs with the Miss Manga mascara and I just don't think I can come to a final conclusion on my overall feels. The two biggest downfalls were that it had the tendency to flake (not a daily thing but probably twice a week) into my eye throughout the day and that was excruciating. My tube also dried up after only a little over a month of use so that was pretty disappointing as well. I think the one thing that really keeps me attached to this mascara is my never-ending (I'm talking 13+ years here) love for manga as well as the newly available waterproof version; call me tempted to try that out, that's for sure!

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Honestly though I just can't help myself; if you've followed my blog even the littlest bit before my semi-hiatus this summer then you'd know I'm an avid nail polish fan (hoarder). Then add into the mix that the last couple of months have been horrendous for me because of summer school and you have my current obsession with sparkle packed nail polishes. Because what better way is there to improve your mood other than a bit of jazz on your nails? In my world, the answer is simple: nothing.

I was oh-so sweetly (see what I did there?) sent this nail polish by my lovely nail blogger friend Stephanie over at Short 'n Chic a long while back and, truth be told, this polish was probably the highlight of the care package. The sprinkle polishes that Hard Candy came out with (how long has it been now? My mind is saying "years" while my intuition is screaming otherwise) were something I wanted to get my hands—and nails—on so so badly but couldn't bring myself to go to a Walmart to get. For whatever reason I never seem to live very close to a Walmart location (it's the only place Hard Candy cosmetics are sold, for those of you who didn't know), Target or Walgreens was always closer, and I just plain old don't like Walmart haha. Thankfully though, Stephanie fulfilled my nail-polish-needy soul and shipped the color I had been lusting over… chocolate covered bliss doesn't quite cover how freaking delighted I was to unwrap this polish from its bubble wrap and slap it on my nails.

The formula was ever-so-slightly gloopy but, truth be told, I was so happy to use "sweet tooth" that it didn't bother me. It's kind of expected (at least to anyone who knows nail polish) for polishes packed with glitter to be on the thicker side though so it really was no big deal. The sprinkles laid flat on the nail and, since the polish was so saturated with the stuff, there was no need to 'go fishing' in the bottle like you have to with a lot of glitter nail polishes (this particular polish comes to mind). As you can see in the photos above, "sweet tooth" is full of blue, pink, and white sparkles all suspended in a milky, semi-sheer periwinkle base. The combination of colors and finish make this polish super whimsical and playful; basically it's right up my alley.
Thank you so much (times a billion) Stephanie for sending this polish (and the other goodies) my way… truly, I'm still overwhelmed with the kindness packed into that box. Working my way through the polishes has been so fun and I've found many gems through your hand-me-downs; Hard Candy's "sweet tooth" is definitely one of them!

Have you tried out the sprinkle polishes from Hard Candy?
Love 'em? Hate 'em?
Do you make special trips to Walmart for the Hard Candy section (am I the only one too lazy to do so?)?
Do share!!

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Oh boy… that's probably not a very promising way to start out this post but it just felt right. And sometimes when something feels so undeniably good you just kind of have to go with it and hope for the best, amiright? For now I'm going to go with yusssss because yesterday marked my last day of summer school and I can't even begin to describe how freaking fantastic that feels. I can take a nap guilt free! I can read a book for pleasure! I can shower!!! Well, okay, that last one is something I should have been doing more frequently anyways but unfortunately for me (and I suppose others) bathing is pretty low on the priority ladder when stacks of papers need to be read/written and dry shampoo exists.

Anyways. Let's talk nail polish, shall we?

I've said it before (before, before… is there an echo in here?)and I'll say it again: I love Forever21 nail polishes, especially their milky glitter creations. They're creamy, easy to work with, don't crack/are extremely chip-resistant, and are stupid cheap ta'boot. I'm always scouring their website to see if they've added any new confetti-esque polishes and have a hard time resisting placing an order for some new clothes just so I can add the polishes to my cart as well (don't worry mom, I've been a good girl and not placed an order since January).

The one 'complaint' I have about Forever21's nail polishes is that the name on the website never matches what they put on the bottle; online it's called "Pink Cupcake" (it's still available on their site [don't worry, that's not an affiliate link of any kind] if you want to nab it for yourself!) yet the label on the bottle is just "PINK/RED/SILVER". Kind of strange, don't you think? Regardless, I suppose I'm just happy that the one 'downside' of these polishes is something silly like name inconsistencies rather than anything problematic with the formula.

This particular set of photos was from July (you can see me wearing the polish in this video) but I remember loving having "Pink Cupcake" on my nails. It's just quirky enough without being too in-yo-FACE and, like I said above, I just like these polishes from Forever21. Not to mention I think it's fun having something reminiscent of cupcake sprinkles on my nails… I am a foodie at heart (and stomach) after all.

Monday, August 11, 2014

Nothing special or new here folks… just another drop in on the ol' blog to update you on my YouTube channel; so sorry for running such a failure of a blog as of late. I promise that once summer school is over I'll pump out at least a few product reviews on here before the school year starts up again (my two weeks of summer vacation will be glorious once they finally arrive)!! Until then, if you haven't seen it yet and are interested, I've got my newest YouTube video linked above so feel free to watch and see how the SEPHORA COLLECTION Cream Lip Stain performs! As always, I hope you're all well~

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Ughhhhh you guys I'm SO sorry my blog has been all sorts of… blah (to put it kindly) as of late; with summer classes finally winding down though I'm hoping that in the next couple of weeks I'll be able to pump out some 'real' content to make up for my semi-absence. Until then I hope you can still enjoy the stuff I'm putting up on my YouTube channel! As of a couple (few?) days ago I posted a video on the infamous NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer so, if you haven't seen it and are interested in seeing my first impression, feel free to head on over and have a watch.

I hope you're all doing well and not melting too much in the sweltering summer heat~